‘Work It' gets detractors riled up

Sitcom accused of mocking the transgender community.

Updated 3:34 pm, Friday, December 23, 2011

In this image released by ABC, from left to right, Kate Reinders, Kirstin Eggers, Rebecca Mader and Ben Koldyke are seen during a scene from "Work It," on the ABC Television Network.

In this image released by ABC, from left to right, Kate Reinders, Kirstin Eggers, Rebecca Mader and Ben Koldyke are seen during a scene from "Work It," on the ABC Television Network.

Photo: ABC

‘Work It' gets detractors riled up

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NEW YORK — Viewers may find ABC's new sitcom “Work It” to be cringingly awful from an entertainment standpoint.

But the show, which depicts two out-of-work chaps who dress as women to land jobs in a tough economy, has drawn fire from groups with a different complaint: They say “Work It” mocks the transgender community.

“Though the show is not about transgender people, it's about the notion that men presenting as women is funny,” said Herndon Graddick of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

“It reinforces inaccurate and tired stereotypes that are injurious to transgender Americans,” said Fred Sainz of the Human Rights Campaign, a civil rights organization working on behalf of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans.

HRC is joining GLAAD in urging supporters to ask ABC not to air the series, which is scheduled to premiere Jan. 3.

But is the campaign that targets “Work It” also, by extension, a broad denunciation of one of entertainment's most enduring devices: cross-dressing for comic effect?

Robin Williams played a man who adopted a persona as a Scottish nanny in the 1993 comedy “Mrs. Doubtfire.” In 1982, “Tootsie” starred Dustin Hoffman as an out-of-work actor who dresses up as a soft-spoken actress to land a woman's role on a soap opera.

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And on TV, Tom Hanks appeared with Peter Scolari in the 1980s sitcom “Bosom Buddies,” which depicted male roommates posing as women to gain entry to a budget-priced apartment building that admitted only female residents.

Flash forward to “Work It,” which pairs what the network calls “two unrepentant guy's guys” (Lee Standish, a family man, and Angel Ortiz, a ladies' man) who lost their jobs at a car dealership and have gone a year without employment.

Soon, Lee (Ben Koldyke) hears of openings for sales reps at a pharmaceutical company. But the company is looking for women, not men, to fill the slots.

Lee knows what he must do: He dresses up as a woman, however preposterously, and wins a job from the unsuspecting firm. So does his buddy, Angel (Amaury Nolasco), who is similarly costumed.

With their linebacker physiques, squeaky voices and amateurish makeup, neither man would fool a 5-year-old, which is meant to be part of the joke.

But while painfully unfunny, is “Work It” poised to inflict real damage on the transgender community?

On Wednesday, ABC declined to comment on the brewing controversy and declined to make anyone available from the show to discuss it.

“If the net result of this show is that it makes it easier to laugh at transgender people or negates their experience in our society, it's something that's not worth continuing,” Graddick said.

“ABC has always been a great corporate citizen,” HRC's Sainz said.

But even as talks continue with the network, “Work It” is still on the schedule and being promoted by ABC.